Lapis Philosophorum
by CalamitasWrath
Summary: On the day of his eleventh birthday, Harry Potter makes a new friend in Edward Elric... and later on the same day, Maes Hughes starts an investigation on an unusual case.
1. Birthday and Break-in

**Author's Notes:**  
I really shouldn't be publishing this already now... not with how lazy I am, and with me focussing on other projects, and especially not something as overdone as a Fullmetal Alchemist/Harry Potter crossover...  
But regardless. To all potential readers: Thanks for, out of the almost 500 Fullmetal Alchemist/Harry Potter crossovers on this site, picking this specific one to read. Now, you might be wondering: What (supposedly) sets this apart from all other crossovers of these series? Well, as you will see, in this specific fic, the Fullmetal Alchemist universe has always been a part of the Harry Potter universe. There is no random plot device that causes Edward Elric, or potential other FMA characters to fall into the HP world. No, instead, they have always lived in this world. What will this mean for HP characters, mechanics and so on? Well, just read on, and you'll see.

Beta work and creative input by Greatkingrat88.

* * *

Harry Potter was in a joyous haze.  
For only about eight hours now, it was his eleventh birthday. And so far, it seemed to be the best birthday he had in his entire life, and not only because from the looks of it, he wasn't even going to spend it with his aunt's family, the Dursleys. No, what really made this birthday so unbelievably wonderful was the unexpected visitor that had come the minute this day began: Hagrid, the giant groundskeeper of the Hogwarts school for wizardry and witchcraft, who, to Harry's enormous surprise, had revealed to him that he was in fact a wizard himself, and would be attending the school, starting with the next term. With just this revelation, he had turned Harry's entire life upside down. Suddenly, his parents, who he always thought to have died in a car accident, were well-known and respected members of the wizarding world, who had been killed by powerful dark wizard named Voldemort, who had terrorized the wizarding world for decades – before he somehow lost his life while trying to take Harry's, turning Harry into a celebrity in the wizarding world.

And that was only what he had learned last night.  
Right now, it was a sunny morning, probably around 9 AM (it was impossible for Harry to tell, since he didn't have a watch himself), and he was together with Hagrid on his way to London, where they would buy the things that he would need for school. The both of them were sitting in the boat that, after a little enchantment from Hagrid, took them back to the mainland without any need to row it, away from the small island where the Dursleys had hoped to be safe from the never-ending stream of school letters. Since there was nothing that Harry or Hagrid could do but to wait, Hagrid had begun reading the newspaper that an owl had brought them earlier. Harry didn't mind, though; there were far too many things on his mind for him to think about – not to mention that Harry had already learned a long time ago from his uncle Vernon that people did not take kindly to being interrupted while reading their newspaper.

"Old Bradley and his ministry o' magic messin' with everythin', as usual..." Hagrid muttered, while turning the page.

"There's a ministry of magic?" Harry asked, the question having slipped out before he could think it through.

"'Course there is. They obviously wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old King Bradley got the job. Competent guy, though he sometimes seems to love his job too much..." Hagrid said.

"His first name is King? Why?"

"Bugger if I know. It just is. His parents must've liked that name, I suppose"

"And, uh... what does the Ministry do?"

"Well, their main job is to keep it from the muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country, and to make sure that nobody abuses magic. Nobody'd like somebody like you-know-who show up again."

At this moment, their little boat bumped into the harbour wall, having finished its trip to back to the mainland. Hagrid put away his newspaper, and together they left the boat, and made their way into the town. From here on, the trip to London, while by no means uninteresting, was a whole lot less eventful. During the trip, Hagrid proved himself multiple times to be rather unfamiliar with the 'muggle's' method of travel, and therefore left it to Harry to arrange as much of it as possible.

After only a few hours of travel, they had finally made their way to the place in London where, according to Hagrid, they would be able to purchase all the things that Harry would need for school: A small, dirty-looking pub named the "Leaky Cauldron", which none of the passers-by seemed to even notice.

Seeing this, Harry's euphoria vanished, and was replaced with a strong feeling uncertainty. What if this all was just some big, weird prank set up by the Dursleys? "Uh, Hagrid? Are you sure that this is the right place?"

"'Course it is. If yeh want to get yer stuff fer Hogwarts, yeh'll need to go through there. Now c'mon, in we go."

As it turned out, the inside of the pub stood in quite a contrast to its exterior: While it was not very well-lit, and filled with plenty of weird people, everything still gave off a fairly friendly and inviting vibe. When Harry and Hagrid first entered the room, everything was rather silent, with people only quietly talking to each other. This quickly changed when Tom, the old barman, recognized Harry, at which point the attention to every person in the room shifted to him. Quickly, Harry found himself surrounded by people who wanted to shake his hand, or in some way or another make their admiration for him known. This was probably the first time in Harry's entire life that he had been in the center of attention of so many people who enjoyed his presence – it was simply overwhelming to him. Having been so far either ignored or shunned in the best case scenarios, he simply did not know how to react to the situation, and had to rely on Hagrid resolving it by simply pulling him out.

Hagrid led Harry out of the pub room, and into a small, seemingly featureless, courtyard. One use of Hagrid's wand-umbrella later, though, the two stood in front of a passageway, leading to a sun-lit street, full of all kinds of magical shops, and even more people then there had been in the Leaking Cauldron.

"Welcome to the Diagon Alley, Harry." Hagrid said with a grin, seeing the amazement written on Harry's face.

As Harry and Hagrid stepped out of the pathway, a blonde girl at about Harry's age and a small old woman rushed past them, trying to get through the passageway before it closed again. Neither Harry nor Hagrid paid much attention to them.

"Now c'mon, Harry. We need to get yer some money before we can buy anything."

The place Hagrid led Harry to this time was a snowy-white building, which easily stood taller than any of the small shops. As they made their way towards the building, Harry had a rather hard time keeping up with Hagrid, which was only partly because his steps were just so much longer than Harry's. The main reason however that Harry simply could not keep his eyes of all the amazing shops around him; it was like he was in a wonderful dream.

"Gringotts." Hagrid explained to Harry, as they got closer to the white building. "The only wizarding bank in Britain."

But Harry was completely unable to look at the building. He could only stare at the guard standing at the door: A very human-like- but decidedly not human- creature with unnaturally long hands and feet and a long beard, behind which there was a clever-looking face.

"Yeah, that's a goblin." Hagrid said as they entered the building.

The room they found themselves in continued the trend that the exterior of Gringotts started: It was a vast, imposing marble hall, filled with wizards and goblins alike, all of whom seemed to be attending to some money-related business. After a bit of looking around, Hagrid and Harry went up to a free goblin sitting behind a long counter. Some quickly exchanged words later, another goblin appeared, who took them through one of the room's many doors, leading them – much to Harry's surprise – into a narrow stone passageway lit by torches, where a cart was waiting for them on railway tracks.

Then, after a wild ride through the caves under Gringotts, they finally had arrived at their first destination: Harry's vault. It was filled to the brims with more money than Harry had ever seen amassed in one place in his entire life: Piles and piles of gold, silver and bronze coins lying around, filling just every corner of the vault.

"All yours. This should be more than enough fer yer seven years at Hogwarts, eh?" Hagrid asked with a grin.

Harry didn't doubt for a second that what Hagrid said was true – while he did not know how much the things he needed for Hogwarts would cost, he highly doubted that seven years at school would be enough to spend all of the money in the vault. The fact that Hagrid only took out a very small amount of coins, whose absence was barely noticeable next to the rest of the gold, supported Harry's suspicion.

After Hagrid had given the bag containing the money to Harry, the goblin accompanying them closed up the vault again, before the three of them made their way to their second destination: A mysterious vault, which contained something that Hagrid was to retrieve for Dumbledore. While the general area of the vault barely looked different from where Harry's vault had been, there was something about this place that made Harry feel very uneasy. It was a feeling as if there were many, many people somewhere nearby, screaming out anguish, without making any noise – when in reality, aside from Harry, there was only Hagrid and the goblin nearby.

But from the looks of it, Harry was not the only one who could feel it: Both the goblin and Hagrid seemed to be a tad on edge as well, seeing as they both made sure to open the vault and empty it as quickly as possible. As such, Harry caught only a small glimpse of what had been in the vault: An object looking like a small package, wrapped up in brown paper. Considering the feeling that he got from this place, Harry was not sure if he even wanted to know what was inside the package.

With that, their trip through Gringotts was over. After one more cart ride, they were back in the entrance hall, from which they left the bank. After the poorly-lit caves of Gringotts, the sunshine outside was blinding Harry for a moment, before he could adjust to the light. With the knowledge that he now actually had money to spend, all the shops in the Diagon Alley seemed even more inviting to him than before, if that was even possible. While the feeling of uneasiness was still present, it was completely overshadowed by the sheer joy that he felt; he didn't even know which shop he should check out first.

"Yeh best start by getting yehself yer robes, Harry." Hagrid said, nodding towards a shop called 'Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions'. "Say, would yeh mind doing that yehself? I need to get something to get over them cart rides."

Harry nodded, and so Hagrid left him alone. Rather nervous now, Harry made his way over to the shop. When he reached the door however, it already burst open, and a boy at about Harry's age with a pale, pointed face stormed out angrily, holding his head. He didn't even seem to notice Harry as he went past him.

Rather confused, Harry entered the shop, where he could hear a female voice chide somebody in the back of it.

"...Even if he did call you short, that doesn't give you the right to hit him, young man! You can be glad that he had already paid for his robes, because otherwise, I would have to throw you out! And believe me, if you do something like this, I will still throw you out!"

At that point, the speaker seemed to have realized that somebody had entered, as she stopped talking, and seemed to be walking towards Harry. After just a moment, a squad witch came into his view, and gave him a smile which seemed a bit strained.

"Hogwarts, dear?" She asked, just before Harry could speak up. "Got the lot here – another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."

She led him to the back of the shop, where there was another boy standing on a footstool, while another witch pinned up long black robes for him. The boy was quite short, seeming to be even a bit smaller than Harry. He had long, golden-blonde hair, which he kept in a braid, and eyes in the same color. For whatever reason, he was wearing white gloves. Madam Malkins gestured Harry to stand on a stool next to him, before slipping a black robe over his head, which she herself worked on.

"Hey. Are you alone, too?" The other boy asked in a curious tone.

"Yes." Harry replied.

"Huh. Where are your parents then?" The boy asked.

"They're dead." Harry simply said. He didn't want to tell a random stranger absolutely everything about him – especially when he most likely already knew about it.

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that." Said the other, audible concern in his voice.

"What about your parents?" Harry asked, now getting more curious himself.

"My mother is dead, and my father... he left our family years ago. I'm here with today with a friend of mine and her grandmother. She's taking care of me and my brother. I convinced her that I'm able to buy the things I need myself, so she's currently getting the things for my friend." The boy say quietly.

"You have a brother? Why isn't he with you?" Harry questioned.

"He won't go to Hogwarts until next year, and he's... not feeling so well right now, so he stayed at home." Harry could hear that the boy didn't want to talk about this.

"...Ah." Was all that Harry could get out after that.

"What's your name, anyway?" The boy asked, clearly trying to change the subject.

"My name is Harry Potter."

"Oh. Wow." Said the boy, sounding almost dumbfounded – which stood in quite the contrast to Madam Malkins and the other witch, which both let out surprised cry, and began staring at Harry with wide eyes. "I didn't know that you're already going to Hogwarts this year... uh, anyway. My name is Edward Elric."

He held out his left hand to Harry. After a short moment of hesitation, Harry extended his own, and they shook hands.

"Uh... who's that?" Ed suddenly asked, pointing to the front window, outside of which Hagrid was standing, holding up to large ice-creams to show that he couldn't come in.

"Oh, that's Hagrid. He's working at Hogwarts, and accompanying me." Harry said, smiling.

Before Edward could say anything in response, Madam Malkin and the other witch finished their work at Harry's and Edward's robe respectively. As both of them paid up, Edward turned towards Harry. "Say, would you mind if I tagged along with you for a while? I'm sure that you wouldn't mind having somebody else around who can explain a few things to you, right?"

"No, I suppose I really wouldn't." Harry replied with a grin.

Together they left the shop, where they were greeted by Hagrid, who gave Harry a big grin. "Blimey, Harry! I leave yer alone fer just a few minutes, and yeh already make a friend! I told yer that yeh could do it. Even if he is a bit on the short side."

As Harry quickly realized, he was now witnessing a scene similar to the one that unfolded shortly before the other boy had stormed out of Madam Malkin's shop.

"Who're you calling a shorty?! What else do you want to call me: A midget?! A half-pint?! I'm still growing, you walking mass of hair!" Edward ranted, while trying to climb up Hagrid, presumably to be able to reach his face and hit it.

Hagrid only chuckled, picked Edward up, and placed him on the ground. "Well, at least yeh got a good temperament. What's yer name?"

"Gng! My name is Edward Elric." Ed replied, suddenly a lot calmer.

"Elric yeh say... are yeh perhaps the son of Trisha Elric?"

Edward gave Hagrid an incredulous look. "You knew my mother?"

"'Course I do. Saw her plenty of times when she was at Hogwarts. Was good friends with Lily, Harry's mother, too!" Edward and Harry exchanged a look. That really seemed like a very unlikely coincidence.

"Shame that she died, too... was a wonderful person, Trisha. But say, don't yeh have a brother as well? How's he doing?" Hagrid meanwhile continued.

"Alphonse is at home. He's not feeling too well." Ed said, repeating what he had explained to Harry earlier.

"Ahh, I see... well, anyway: Me and Harry still gotta run a few errands to run. Would yeh want ter come along?"

"Sure. I already asked Harry myself."

"Good! C'mon then, we still have a lot of things ter get. I say we go ter Ollivander's first – get yeh two yer wands. I suppose yeh don't have yer wand yet, Edward?"

"Just call me Ed. And no, I don't have my wand yet."

A wand – that was what Harry himself had been looking forward to the most. It was what he needed to actually properly use magic, the one thing every witch and wizard had.

As it turned out, Ollivander's was a surprisingly narrow, shabby-looking shop. The gold letters spelling the shop's name were peeling, and its front window was dusty. The room behind it was so dark, that it could barely be made out. As the three of them entered, a bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop, behind seemingly endless rows of shelves, containing square boxed, which in turn contained wands, as Harry assumed.

Suddenly, an old man with wide, pale eyes emerged from the darkness. "Good afternoon." He said, his voice soft and calm, as if though he didn't want to disturb the silence in the room.

"Hello." Harry, Edward and Hagrid said awkwardly, one after another. All three of them were more than a bit disturbed by Mr. Ollivander's sudden appearance.

"Ah, yes... I already thought that you might come here today, Mr. Potter. You look just like your father when he was here to buy his own wand... except for your eyes. Your eyes are those of your mother... I do remember her clearly, too."

He then turned his unsettling gaze towards Edward, who returned it with a grim expression. "I can not say that I recognize you, though... so who might you be, young man?"

"Edward Elric." Ed shot back. He really didn't seem to enjoy Mr. Ollivander's presence.

"Elric, Elric... ah, like Trisha Elric? I remember her... ten and a quarter inches, made of hawthorn. Unyielding, yes... but I suppose you are not here to hear about her. Which one of you two wants to go first?"

Before Harry could even think about it, Edward spoke up. "I'll do it."

"Very well then... which hand is your dominant one?" Ollivander asked, as he pulled a measure tape out of one of his pockets.

Before answering, Edward hesitated. "I... used to be right-handed, but that... changed recently. I'm more left-handed now."

Mr. Ollivander raised his eyebrows. "It changed? What exactly are you talking about?"

Instead of saying anything, Ed took a deep breath, held out his right arm, removed the glove, and pulled up his sleeve a bit. To Harry's shock, the arm was not flesh as he believed it was – it was instead completely mechanical, and made of steel. Harry could not see how much of Ed's arm was mechanical, but from what he could see, it appeared as if most of it was.

The eyes of both Hagrid and Mr. Ollivander grew wide as they saw this. "It is quite unusual to see an automail on somebody your age... for how long are you missing your right arm now?"

"It's for little over a year now."

"What's an automail?" Harry asked, feeling a bit left out of the loop.

Ed turned towards Harry. "Automail? That's a kind of prosthesis that can fully replace a lost limb. I myself lost my right arm and my left leg in... an accident. That's why I'm left-handed now."

While Edward had explained this to Harry, Mr Ollivander had already gone to one of the many shelves, and taken a box out of it, which he brought to them. "Try this one, Mr Elric. Ten and a third of an inch, elder wood, unyielding, and a core of dragon heartstring. Not exactly the most common combination, but excellent for transfiguration. I am certain that this one will gladly accept you... you see, it is always the wand that choses its master, not the other way round."

With a skeptic look on his face, Ed took the wand out of the box with his left hand, and swung it. The moment he did it, the wand erupted into a small firework of golden sparks.

Mr. Ollivander was delighted. "Ahh, my intuition has not failed me! That would seven galleons then, Mr. Elric – or do you have any objections to this wand?"

In response, Ed only shook his head, and paid up.

After this, Mr Ollivander started to look for a wand for Harry – which ended up taking a lot longer than finding one for Ed. For whatever reason, Mr. Ollivander's judgment kept being off, and so the boxes with 'wrong' wands piled up to their side. But the more wands turned out to be wrong, the more Mr. Ollivander seemed to get into the search. By the time that they finally found the right wand, Harry's arm was getting numb from all the swinging, Ed had sat down in a corner started napping, and even Hagrid seemed to be getting tired. The wand that ultimately turned out to be the right one for Harry was made of holly and had the feather of a phoenix as its core – according to Mr. Ollivander, the same phoenix that had also given the feather for the wand of the wizard that was responsible for the death of Harry's parents and his lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.

Like Edward before him, Harry paid up, and the three of them finally left the shop. There were still many things that they had to purchase, including books. Ed stayed with Harry and Hagrid throughout the entire time in which they were running these errands, talking with Harry about all possible things, such as what they were expecting out of Hogwarts or Harry's past. But no matter how Harry asked, Edward would barely tell him anything about his own past.

For Harry, who never really had a person that he could call a friend, being together with Ed and Hagrid was simply wonderful. Ed seemed to be barely bothered by the fact that Harry was apparently a celebrity of sorts to the wizarding world: He treated him like a normal person, which Harry really did not mind. He would take turns with Hagrid to explain Harry various things that Harry did not know about yet, and even crack a few friendly jokes at some of Harry's misunderstandings.

Edward only left Hagrid and Harry when they got back to the Leaking Cauldron, after buying all the things that the two of them needed. Before he left them, he promised to meet up with Harry on September 1st, when the term would start, and help him out.

But during the entire time he spent with Edward, Harry couldn't help but feel that his cheerfulness was not entirely true – that it was only a facade.

* * *

-7-

* * *

If there was one thing that Maes Hughes hated, then it was overtime – especially when he had planned a wonderful evening with his wife Gracia after he got home. As a member of the Magical Law Enforcement bureau, this was however often enough sadly inevitable. So today, he found himself walking through Diagon Alley at a time when he would usually already have been at home for several hours. His destination: The wizarding bank, Gringotts.

Maes had already been getting ready to apparate home when a memo arrived that informed him of an undefined 'incident' at Gringotts, which required him and many of his colleagues at the scene as soon as possible. While this did not exactly have a positive effect on his mood, Maes still followed the order, since he full well realized the importance that this case seemed to hold, and obviously didn't want to give off a bad impression to his superiors.

By the time that Maes arrived at Gringotts, the entire main hall of the bank was already full of goblins and ministry wizards, all apparently trying to assess the situation, and search for any traces of magic left behind during whatever incident happened here. To Maes, most notable among the people of the ministry were his subordinates Maria Ross, a young woman with very short, black hair, Denny Brosh, a man in about the same age as Maria Ross with neck-long, blonde hair, and Alex Louis Armstrong, an incredibly tall and muscular man, with an almost entirely hairless head, the sole exception being a single strand of light blonde hair on his forehead, and an enormous mustache that made it impossible to see his mouth whenever he wasn't talking. Just like many other witches and wizards of their generation (which generally had been strongly influenced by Muggle culture), and Maes Hughes himself, they had ditched the traditional wizarding robes in favour of the kind of suits that muggles had been wearing in the 1920s.

When Maria Ross noticed Maes approaching, she quickly saluted, as if caught doing something forbidden, causing Denny Brosh and Armstrong to turn towards him as well. "Mr Hughes, sir!"

"Good evening, Ross, Bosh, Armstrong. So tell me, what exactly is going on here? You were awfully vague in the memo that you send me." Maes asked, addressing Armstrong.

"Truth to be told, sir, we don't really know what has happened here, either. All we know right now is that there has been a break-in. Mr Mustang is currently talking to Head Goblin Alguff to learn the details of what has happened." The tall man said, keeping his voice low, which, to anybody who knew him, just came off as weird.

Hearing that, Maes raised his eyebrows. "A break-in? No surprise then that so many of us got called out here... with how much the goblins pride themselves in this place being absolutely safe, it's pretty much a given that they want this case to be solved as quickly as possible... so where are Roy and the Head Goblin now?"

"They're at the Head Goblin's office, in that direction." He said, pointing at a door at the side of the hall that was exactly opposite of the main entrance.

Maes looked at the direction that Armstrong pointed at, while scratching his head. The door in question was, with the exception of the front door, the biggest one in the room, clearly signifying its importance.  
"Alright... I suppose I will go and see if Roy is already done. You stay here in the meantime."

Without objection, the three obeyed, and went back to their work, while Maes made his way to the office. When he reached the entrance, though, the door already opened, and out of it stepped a man in just the same age as Maes, with thin, dark eyes, short black hair, and a generally overconfident aura about him. He was followed by a woman in just the same age as him, with long, blonde hair, fastened up with a clip barrette, and amber-colored eyes. Contrasting the man that she was following, the impression that she gave off was more stoic than it was sophisticated.

Maes needed little more than a quick look to recognize who was in front of him: His old friend Roy Mustang, and his direct subordinate, Riza Hawkeye. "Hey there, Roy." He said with a grin. "Care to fill me in on what exactly happened here?"

While Roy's expression when he had opened the door had been rather grim, it quickly lightened up when he recognized his friend. "Hughes! They called you out, too?"

"Sadly, yeah. If I had any say in this, I'd already be at home with Gracia, but orders are orders. But again, what's this with this break-in now? What was stolen?" He asked, not allowing the subject to change as he slowly walked through the hall with Roy and Riza. While he was glad to see Roy, he still wanted to get the necessary things out of the way as quickly as possible – Gracia was waiting for him, after all.

Before he answered, Roy gave his friend a calculating look. "Ah yes, that. Well, that's the thing, you see: Nothing was stolen."

That left Maes dumbfounded. "Come again?"

"You heard me right. Absolutely nothing was stolen. The person who did this went for one specific high security vault, which was emptied earlier today."

"...Wow. This is what, the first break-in this bank had in centuries? And then they don't even steal anything... whose vault was it? Do we have any clues on how our culprit got in?" Maes got out, despite still being a bit speechless.

"If we knew how this person got in, it would already help us quite a bit... all Head Goblin Alguff could tell us it that the thief entered the bank through a side entrance, killed the goblin guarding that entrance, cut off his hands, and the somehow made his way to the vault." Roy explained, keeping his voice low.

Maes stopped. "A murder, too? Why were the goblin's hands cut off?" This was really starting to sound sick.

"The vault in question can only be opened when a goblin touches it... at least that's what Alguff said."

"Hm. A loophole abuse, then. Well, I suppose that means that the murderer most likely wasn't a goblin himself. How exactly was the guardian killed?"

"Judging by the corpse, the murderer used an Unforgivable Curse."

"That too? Geez... and who is the owner of the vault in question now?"

"Oh, uh... Miss Hawkeye?"

"Yes, sir." She said, her voice just as stoic as her expression. "According to the files that Head Goblin Alguff gave us the vault belongs to 'Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.'"

"Well, well, well..." Maes said, starting to grin. "If that isn't just the kind of case that you've been waiting for, Roy! A dark wizard who doesn't shy away from using Unforgivable Curses, a break-in in one of the most secure places in all of Britain, the relation between wizards and goblins at risk, Albus Dumbledore is involved, and the Minister of Magic himself is paying attention to this... if you can solve this, you getting a promotion is essentially a given."  
Ever since the war against Voldemort and his supporters had ended roughly ten years ago, Roy had done everything that he could to move up in the ministry. His goal was, as he revealed to Maes, to become Minister of Magic himself, and make their country a better place. While King Bradley's politics had proven themselves to be very effective against the Dark Lord, both Roy and Maes were still disturbed by the ruthlessness that the ministry had to make use of to keep the upper hand. Often enough, they had to kill innocent people, just because they were suspected to be involved with Voldemort's supporters, the Death Eaters somehow. This had been especially hard on Roy, who, as a State Alchemist, had killed more people than at least a dozen Aurors combined.

For some reason, though, Roy himself was not caught up in his friend's euphoria in regards to the case. "Hmpf. As much as I'd like to take this case, Hughes, I can't. I'll have to give it to you."

"Huh? Why is that?" Maes asked, very confused.

"Don't tell me you already forgot..." Roy said in an annoyed tone. "I'm leaving tomorrow. Professor Dumbledore just recently gave me his approval."

"Ohhh yeah, you're heading to Hogwarts tomorrow... getting ready for your new job as alchemy teacher, no?"

"Exactly. If I had known that something like this would come up, I never would have applied to the job..." He sighed. "But I suppose it would only shed a bad light on me if I were to move out of this now. At least King Bradley still has a big interest in education, so doing this will hopefully make a good impression."

"Ah, come on, Roy. I'm pretty sure that it won't be so bad. From what I've heard, this boy that got his State Alchemist license earlier today is starting at Hogwarts this year, too. And guess who else starts at Hogwarts this year – Harry Potter! If you leave a good impression on those two, I'm pretty sure that it'll also help your public image." Maes said while giving his friend pat on the back.

"I don't really like the thought of using children like that, Hughes... but regardless. Like I said, I'm leaving this case to you. And not just that: For the three years that I'll be teaching at Hogwarts, I'm putting you in charge of my men – Jean Havoc, Vato Falman, Kain Fuery and Heymans Breda – if you don't mind, that is. Miss Hawkeye is going to come with me to Hogwarts, to act as my assistant." As he said this, Riza, who, aside from her mentioning of Dumbledore earlier, had been silently following the conversation, nodded. "If I'm not paying attention to him, he'll just be slacking off instead of preparing lessons and the like."

"Hmm. Well, I suppose I can take this case... but I'd still need to question Professor Dumbledore to find out what exactly he kept in his vault that would cause a dark wizard to break into Gringotts. Could you perhaps do this for me when you arrive at Hogwarts tomorrow? It'd save me the trouble of travelling to Hogwarts myself, or contacting him otherwise." Maes asked, as Roy gave Riza an angry glare.

"I wouldn't mind being involved in this... I'll do it. I'll send you an owl with what Dumbledore has to say about this." He replied, having already regained his composure.

"Thanks, Roy. So, uh... good luck with your new job as teacher, I suppose?"

"I'll hopefully not need that. I already read some Muggle books on education, and the rest of the Hogwarts staff will explain me how they handle classes, so I think I'll be fine. But still, thanks, and good luck with this case, Hughes." Roy said, and made his way out of the bank, with Riza following him. When he reached the main entrance, he stopped for a moment, and turned around once more, while Riza already left the building.

"Oh, and Roy?" Maes said loudly enough for everybody in the hall to hear him, following a sudden whim.

"What is it, Hughes?" He asked, sounding slightly puzzled.

"If you're already taking Miss Hawkeye with you as your assistant, you could as well go right ahead and confess your love to her!"

"Oh, SHUT UP!" Roy shouted, before leaving the room, slamming the door behind him, while Maes let out a hearty laugh. Once he was sure that Roy was gone for sure, Maes stopped laughing, and walked over to his subordinates, thinking about the case. The last known use of an Unforgivable Curse had already been several years ago – simply the fact that one was being used now meant that a dangerous dark witch or wizard was behind this. In Gringotts, all sorts of magical artifacts were being kept, and if the vault belonged to Albus Dumbledore, then it really must have been something interesting that was being kept in it. And then there was of course the fact that a witch or wizard breaking into Gringotts could potentially strain the relationship between goblins and wizards, which had never been a completely peaceful one... no, this was by no means going to be an easy case.

Maes Hughes sighed. He sure had his work cut out for him.

-7-

When Rubeus Hagrid arrived back at Hogwarts, it was already late evening. The journey back to the school had taken him several hours, since he was unable to use any of the travelling methods more commonly used by wizards, such apparating, brooms or floo powder, so that he had to use the Hogwarts express to return. During the entire time, the feeling of uneasiness that he had felt since his visit to Gringotts did not leave him. While at first, Hagrid blamed it on the effects that Gringotts carts usually had on him; by now, there was no more denying it: This feeling was caused by the thing that he had retrieved from Gringotts for Professor Dumbledore.

By the time that he reached Dumbledore's office, Hagrid was in fact not too far away from becoming a nervous wreck due to the constant exposure to this feeling. As such, he was just glad when after a firm knock on the headmaster's office door, the response in the form of a clear "Enter." came.

As Hagrid did as he was asked, Albus Dumbledore stood at in front of the window, looking out into the night, his hands behind his back. Without a word, Hagrid walked up to the headmaster's desk, pulled the brown package from the depths of his pockets, and placed it on the table. "Here yeh go, Professor Dumbledore. This is the thing yeh asked me to get fer yeh, and I hope yeh don't mind me askin', but just what is this?"

Slowly, Dumbledore turned around. While normally, there was a vitality in his eyes that made it easy for people to forget his age, right now, he just looked as old as one would expect a man his age to look. Silently, he went over to his desk, picked up the package, and started unpacking it, revealing something that resembled a thumb-sized, crimson gemstone. "This, Hagrid, is something that an old friend of mine, Van Hohenheim, entrusted to me several years ago. This is a Philosopher's Stone. I'm certain that you have already heard of it?"

"Yes, sir, I have heard of it... but why does it make me feel so weird? 'Cuz it's doin' that, right?" Hagrid asked, relieved that he could voice his concerns.

"I cannot tell you this, Hagrid. All that you need to know that this Stone is something that no one should desire... which is why we will be hiding it here at Hogwarts. Can I count on your help when it comes to preparing safety measures for it as well?" Dumbledore spoke slowly and silently. He seemed to be rather tired.

"'Course, sir. You know that you can count on me." Hagrid reassured him.

"Good, good... but leaving that all aside, how was your trip with Harry?" Dumbledore asked, now getting more lively.

"It was even worse than yeh feared, professor. Harry didn't know a thing 'bout magic, and these muggles even told him that his parents died in a car accident, of all things... but he's still a nice boy. He even made a friend already when I left him fer a moment, Edward Elric."

"Edward Elric? Interesting... but regardless... thank you, Hagrid. That is all for now. You're dismissed. Good night."

While Hagrid did get the feeling that there were several things that Professor Dumbledore wasn't telling him, he respected him too much to just pry into his business. After wishing the professor a good night himself, he left the room. Once Dumbledore was absolutely certain that he was gone, he picked up the Philosopher's Stone once more, and examined it closely.

"The devil's research, hmm..."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**  
And that concludes the first chapter. As more critical readers might notice, the first half of this chapter is pretty heavy on crossover clichés - which was intentional. I deliberately made the first half of this rather generic, while (hopefully) keeping things well-written, to make that second half of this chapter more interesting.  
. . .Well, it is partly that, and partly the fact that I had absolutely no idea on how to approach that part more "originally". I mean, let's be honest: It's the main characters of both series meeting each other, and becoming friends. It's not exactly easy to do that without using even the slightest bit of a cliché. . . . and besides, clichés aren't necessarily bad.  
You, the reader and potential reviewer are to judge whether I succeeded or not.

PS: Just to be clear - the FMA verse in this is for the most part based on the manga. It's superior to the 2003 anime in just about every way, deal with it.


	2. To Hogwarts

**Author's Notes:  
**Earlier than expected, but still later then I wanted to, here's the second chapter! Not much to say at this point, other than that the story's new cover was made by yours truly.

Beta work and creative input by Greatkingrat88.

* * *

The Hogwarts Express: The train that takes students of the Hogwarts School for Wizardry and Witchcraft from London to said school, and back. Under normal circumstances, the train would make very few runs per year between London and Hogwarts, all of them at the beginning and end of the school's vacations. Despite this, the train could make additional runs, should the need for doing so arise.

Bringing a new teacher to Hogwarts would be one such occasion.

Having always disliked the use of apparating, floo powder and portkeys, since they did not entirely agree with him, the use of the Hogwarts Express was the best choice that remained to Roy Mustang – especially so, since both he and Riza Hawkeye were bringing along plenty of documents and things related to their jobs at the ministry. Just because they would be working at Hogwarts for at least the next three years, it didn't mean that they would ignore their job at the ministry.

Roy Mustang's top priority was his career; to stand at the top of the ministry one day. That the way to the top would take him back to Hogwarts to work there as a teacher, seven years after he graduated from the school, was something that Roy never would have imagined. He still clearly remembered how this situation came to be: For years now, it had been getting obvious that King Bradley- unlike the Ministers of Magic before him- had a great interest in education, and in how to improve upon the education that Hogwarts offered. A few years ago, this had led to a very controversial reform when Bradley, with Dumbledore's backing, had introduced several "muggle subjects", as the public called it, to the curriculum of Hogwarts: Math, English, Biology and Physics.

To say that the reaction of the British wizarding society to these reforms was divisive would have been an understatement. For weeks, the official debates between supporters and opponents of the reform raged back and forth, until ultimately, the ministry gave an official statement: That the reform would not be undone, a position that headmaster Dumbledore had wholeheartedly endorsed.

After this incident, it was essentially common knowledge that Hogwarts was Bradley's chief concern. So when late in the last year, it became apparent that Hogwarts' current Alchemy teacher would no longer be teaching the subject in the next year, and the minister himself issued a request for one of the State Alchemists to take the job, Roy essentially jumped at the opportunity, and applied for the position right away.

Since the general interest in the job among State Alchemists was very low, and Roy had always been one of the most skilled State Alchemists, being accepted by Professor Dumbledore was no problem. Thus, it was settled- next year's Alchemy teacher would be "Professor Mustang".

But now, as he actually was on his way to Hogwarts, Roy couldn't help but doubt a little if this had been the right choice. Sure, it would have the intended result of improving his image in front of King Bradley and the upper echelons of the ministry, but on the other hand, Roy would have to spend three years away from the profession that he had done for years now, doing an entirely different job. Not to mention that there was the matter of the actual teaching, and he still wasn't sure how he would be able to handle it...

But then again – Roy Mustang had fought in the aftermath of Lord Voldemort's defeat against the remaining Death Eaters, which even several years after the disappearance of their master continued to terrorize the wizarding world; dealing with children would surely be nothing compared to that. And of course, he had his subordinate Riza Hawkeye as assistant (and to Roy's own surprise, inspector) with him. Yes, things would work out somehow... they had to.

Just as it had been in Roy's own time as student, the Hogwarts Express' journey ended up taking most of the day. By the time that Roy and Riza arrived at the station in Hogsmeade, the sun was already setting. As the two of them stepped out of the train, they were already being awaited by an incredibly large man, wearing a very wide, brown cloak. As he saw the man, Roy began to smile. He still clearly remembered the groundskeeper Hagrid from his own time at Hogwarts.

"Yer Professor Mustang, right? Professor Dumbledore is already waiting for yeh." Hagrid asked, as Roy and Riza walked up to him.

Roy said, giving the large man a smile. "Thank you, Hagrid. Are you going to bring our luggage to the castle?"

Hagrid chuckled. "Seems like yeh remember me better than I do yeh, professor! But yeah, I'll be taking care of your luggage, so yeh can just go and meet Professor Dumbledore. Password for his office 'Nitwit'. Do y'know where to find it?"

"...Yes, I do. I have been there during my own time as student here." Roy said after a bit of hesitation. The memories he had about his one visit to the headmaster's office were not fond ones, though Professor Dumbledore did admire the alchemy that Roy had been able to use back then.

"Ah. Well then welcome to Hogwarts, Professor Mustang and Miss Hawkeye!" With that, Hagrid shook first Roy's and then Riza's hand, and the two of them left the station, making their way to the carriage that was awaiting them.

"Say, that time when you went to the headmaster's office, was that when-?" Riza questioned, as they entered the carriage.

"Yes." Roy quickly replied, in a tone that made it very obvious that he didn't want to talk about the subject. Even so however, his response made Riza grin. That, of all things. . .

The carriage ride to Hogwarts castle, as well as the subsequent way through the castle to Dumbledore's office were like a trip to the past for Roy; just about every place that he got through, every view that he had from the windows, every room they passed... they all brought back memories from his own time as student. Some memories were good, and others (most of which were related to other non-Slytherin students being suspicious of a Slytherin student like him) not so much, but looking back on it all, it really had been a good time, even if he hadn't always been aware of back then.

But there was no time to cling to the past. Roy's eyes had been set on the future, which he intended to shape by his own hands. Teaching here at Hogwarts would only be another step towards that future.

Just as Hagrid had told them, Professor Dumbledore was already awaiting Roy and Riza in his office. When the two of them entered the room, the headmaster was sitting at his desk. Even though it seemed as if he wanted to say something, he kept silent, and watched the two of them with a slightly surprised look on his face.

"Is something the matter, Professor Dumbledore?" Roy asked, after he and Riza sat down on the opposite side of him.

Dumbledore shook his head. "It's nothing, Roy – I hope you don't mind an old man like me calling you that? I just had already forgotten that you and Miss Hawkeye take more kindly to muggle fashion than most of our kind do."

"Ah... well, I just don't think that robes are my style. I hope that this won't represent any problem?"

"No, no, I won't be having a problem with it. What do you have to keep in mind is that some of your colleagues and students might be a bit more... conservative in the regard of clothing choices."

Roy chuckled. "If those are the biggest problems that I will have to deal with during my time as teacher here, then I'm pretty certain that I will manage. To be perfectly honest, I never quite saw the appeal in robes."

"Quite." The headmaster said with a smile. "But as interesting as it might be, I think we should continue this conversation about fashion at another day. I hope your journey here has been a good one?"

"I cannot complain."

"That is good to hear. And what about you, Miss Hawkeye?" Dumbledore asked.

"Everything was alright, sir."

"Good... then, if you would come along, I will show you your new offices."

"Actually, Professor Dumbledore..." Roy said, putting on a more serious face while doing so "There is something else that I would like to talk about you with first. I'm sure that you have already heard of yesterday's break-in at Gringotts?"

The old man closed his eyes, sighed, and lowered his head. "So you found out that it was my vault. What is it that you want to know?"

Roy clasped his hands together. "You must understand Professor, that this is an important case. This is the first break-in that the bank of Gringotts had in centuries; any wizard that could have made it past the bank's wards must have been a powerful dark mage. What I want to know of you is what exactly this vault contained, and whether you have any ideas on who it could have desired whatever it was enough to commit a murder on a goblin."

Dumbledore opened his eye, and raised his head again. Without a word, he pulled open one if his desk's drawers, took a thumb-sized red gemstone out of it, and held it up so that Roy and Riza could clearly see it.

Roy's eyes grew wide, and even Riza seemed a bit surprised. "That's -!"

"Yes." The headmaster said, while placed the stone on the table. "'The crimson elixir', 'the fifth element', 'the heavenly stone'... this is a Philosopher's Stone."

Carefully, Roy picked up the stone, fearing that being careless with it would destroy it. As he did this, a sudden feeling of a strong uneasiness overcame him – as if there were dozens of people crying out in anguish, without making the slightest noise. Dismissing the feeling as excitement, Roy closely observed the stone in his hand. "I always thought that it was nothing more than a myth, despite the reports of people having supposedly successfully created a stone... now I understand why dark wizards would be after it. But... if you had this stone, why didn't you tell the Elric brothers about it when you visited them last year?"

"This stone... was entrusted to me by an old friend of mine, Van Hohenheim. When he gave it to me, before he left on his journey, he made me do an Unbreakable Vow with three conditions. That I keep my owning the stone as secret as possible, that I keep at it safe, at all costs, and that I do not tell anybody how it was created. As for the person that could be after this stone... there is one person that I suspect could be after the stone." Dumbledore said, his voice now silent, almost a whisper.

"Who?" Roy asked impatiently, putting the stone down on the table again.

"Lord Voldemort."

Roy let out a gasp. He did not fear the name itself, but it being mentioned as suddenly as this did catch him off guard. "Him? But I thought he died ten years ago, when he failed to kill Harry Potter! How could he be after the Philosopher's Stone now?!"

"For years now, I have suspected that on that day ten years ago, Voldemort did not truly die- though so far, I have found no proof of this. If he really is still alive, then he is nothing more than a mere shadow of what he used to be, a being incapable of posing any threat without outside help. Using the Philosopher's Stone would allow him to regain a proper physical body. I decided to withdraw the stone from Gringotts, based merely on a bad feeling that I had. As it seems, I was very much right to do so."

"So... if this really Voldemort that we are dealing with here, you mean that he had somebody helping him with this? A wizard or witch who did the actual break-in in his name, possibly a Death Eater?" The Flame Alchemist questioned, cupping his chin with his hand.

"That is most likely...though, please keep in mind that this is only an old man's speculation, and that Voldemort might not be involved in this, after all. For all I know, it could as well be a dark witch or wizard acting on their own, though I consider that not too likely." Dumbledore admitted.

"Why would it be unlikely, though?" Riza interjected.

"Because the fact that I am in possession of a Philosopher's Stone to begin with is 'top secret', as you'd say, to begin with – which is also why I must ask you to keep it as secret as possible. For another dark wizard or witch to know about this, they would need to have some significant influence, or ruthlessness when it comes to them getting information – and frankly, there is very few of this kind of dark mages out there these days."

Roy stayed silent for a moment, thinking about what Dumbledore had revealed to him. The fact that Dumbledore was in possession of a Philosopher's Stone was certainly quite interesting, but that piece of information absolutely paled in comparison to the headmaster of Hogwarts suspecting that Voldemort was involved in the Gringotts break-in. While Roy was very skeptical about Dumbledore's belief that "He who must not be named" was still alive, the possibility of it being true was reason enough to consider this case the biggest chance for a promotion that he ever had... if he could actually take it. As things where, the Flame Alchemist's best bet was to support Maes work on the case as well as it was possible.

"Is there anything else you wanted to ask me, Roy?" Dumbledore suddenly asked, snapping Roy out of his wandering thoughts.

Roy shook his head. "No, Professor. That's all there was in that regard."

"Good... come to think of it, though, I do have another question that I have for Miss Hawkeye here."

Until now, Riza had remained silent, since the interrogation of Dumbledore was Roy's own task, and she had nothing to contribute, that Roy, as her superior, hadn't already said. As such, her normally stoic expression showed a slight bit of surprise, when the headmaster addressed her. "What is it, sir?"

"It really is nothing special, but you see... in all my years at this school, be it as student, teacher or even headmaster, I never even once experienced a person working for the ministry being send to the school as inspector, such as you. In the letter that Bradley sent me in regards to you taking this position, he was awfully vague in what exactly you are going to do. So, unless it goes directly against your orders, would you mind explaining this senile old man what exactly your task as inspector is?"

"My task is to watch over the staff's work at the castle, make notes of its procedures, and report any irregularities to the ministry. From what I understood, minister Bradley only wants to assure that everything is going as it is supposed to be, and doesn't expect that there are going to be any noteworthy incidents." Riza patiently explained.

"Is that so?" Dumbledore asked, stroking his beard. "I suppose we should make sure that Hogwarts is at its best in the upcoming school year, then. But that all aside, I think it is about time that we get back to what we originally planned to do. I'm going to show you your new offices, and then I will introduce you to the rest of the staff."

* * *

-7-

* * *

"Alright, gentlemen... before we start our work here together, I think that we should all introduce ourselves to one another. I'll make a start." Maes said, as he watched his new subordinates, the men that Roy had placed under his command on the evening on the day before yesterday, stand in his office. Had any other colleague other than Roy asked Maes to take command of their subordinates, he would have flat-out refused, since he preferred working in small groups – but since Roy was friend, and he had promised to help him reach the top of the ministry, he couldn't just refuse.

In total, four new subordinates had been placed under Maes' care.  
Jean Havoc, a blonde man with blue eyes, and with a smoking habit, whose age Maes guessed to be around his own.  
Vato Falman, a gray-haired man who for whatever reason kept his eyes constantly nearly shut, and whose age Maes couldn't even begin to guess.  
Kain Fuery, a bespectacled man with black hair, who looked young enough for Maes to think that he had only been out of Hogwarts for a year, at most.  
Heymans Breda, a stout and short red-haired man, who... lacked any features that really stood out to Maes, other than the fact that he appeared to be overweight.  
Together with his own subordinates, Alex Louis Armstrong, Maria Ross and Denny Bosh, that made a total of seven people under his command... which hopefully would be enough to solve the case of the Gringotts break-in, but sadly, most likely also enough to give him a serious headache.

"My name is Maes Hughes." He continued to introduce himself. "I am a school friend of your former superior, Roy Mustang, and have also been a comrade of his in the final years of the war. In my time at Hogwarts, I was a Gryffindor student, and a prefect starting with my fifth year. And this..." He said, his tone suddenly getting more serious, as he began to search for something in the pockets of his uniform, causing the people in front of him to tense.

After a short moment of searching, Maes finally found what he was looking for, and quickly pulled it out of his back. His subordinates, expecting him to pull out his wand and start casting spells, tensed even further – only for the object that he was looking for turning out to be nothing more than a photograph. "...Is my wife Gracia! Isn't she lovely? She's such a wonderful woman, always getting me motivated, doing wonderful cooking, and-!"

Had Maes tone before been halfway serious and informative, it had now degraded into a disturbingly high-pitched gushing, which somehow even managed to make it possible to see hearts emitting from him. The reaction among his among his subordinates could only be described as six pairs of twitching eyes – the only one person whose reaction differed was Armstrong, who instead seemed to be moved to tears.

As Maes continued gushing about his wife, Havoc quietly leaned over towards Denny Bosh, who was standing next to him.

"Is he... always this weird?" Havoc whispered without removing the cigarette from his mouth. He had purposefully moved his head inconspicuously, and kept his voice as low possible, all to make sure that Maes Hughes didn't hear him.

Unfortunately for Havoc, though, it wasn't silent enough.

At once, Maes interrupted his gushing, pointed at his subordinates, and exclaimed "Havoc!".

Hastily, the young man saluted, doing his best not to show a guilty expression. "Yes, sir?"

"I heard that." Maes stated in a matter-of-factly tone. "And please stop smoking. It smells."

Everybody turned around to look at Havoc, who was caught completely off guard. "You can't forbid me that! It's my right to smoke!"

"Yes I can! This is my office, you're my subordinate, so I say you don't smoke in here! It's as simple as that!"

Havoc violently shook his head. "Sir, you can ask me anything you want: I'll break up with my girlfriend, I'll move to an entirely different city, I'll cook a dog, but my smoking I-"

All of a sudden, Havoc interrupted himself, and stared at Maes with wide eyes – and not just him: All of Maes' subordinates began staring at him, for whatever reason.

"Huh? What's wrong? Is there something in my face?" Maes asked, bewildered.

"Uh... behind you, sir..."

Maes turned around. Behind him was...  
A mustache. An eye patch. A closed eye. Black hair. A smile. A face.  
Maes blinked. The face was still there.  
Maes blinked again, and moved his head a bit backward.  
"K- K- King Bradley?!" Maes jumped back. "What are you doing here, sir?"

The minister of magic let out a loud, roaring laughter at the sight of Maes surprise. "Be at ease, Hughes. I only wanted to see for myself how the team in charge of the investigation of the Gringotts break-in is doing. So, tell me: How is the investigation going?"

For the third time now, Maes couldn't help but to blink. That King Bradley wanted the case of the Gringotts break-in to be solved as quickly as possible he had already known, but that the minister of magic himself would randomly drop by to hear about the status of the investigation he had not expected. Not when it was started only one day ago...

"We, uh, haven't really been able to find out much yet, sir. The only thing that we could really confirm so far is that the intruder, whoever it was, has most likely been a wizard, and that they did not use any noteworthy spells in the main hall of Gringotts." Maes quickly explained, trying his best to sound professional, while trying to fully comprehend the fact that King Bradley himself had snuck up to him in his office.

"Ah, I suppose this is to be expected. Have you already been able to contact the owner of the vault that was targeted?" The minister asked, while keeping a perfectly straight face.

"We were already able to confirm that the owner of the vault is Professor Albus Dumbledore, sir. My colleague Roy Mustang has agreed to question him for me – he left for Hogwarts just yesterday, to get started on his new position as Alchemy teacher, if you remember, sir..." Maes continued his explanation, figuring that this was the best opportunity to make mention of his friend being involved in the case.

"Roy Mustang, hm... a good man." King Bradley thought aloud, cupping his chin. "Skilled alchemist, efficient auror... yes, I do recall him taking this teacher position. It is good to know that there are others that are concerned about the school; but regardless. Has the result of the Flame Alchemist's interrogation already arrived?"

"Not yet, minister. We should receive it soon, though."

"Very well then..." King Bradley opened his right eye, and started to slowly walk around the office as he continued to talk the Maes. Maes' subordinates, still speechless looked after him. "I hope that you are aware of the importance that this case holds, Hughes. With a dark wizard with the skill that is necessary to break into Gringotts, chances are rather high that the still active remnants of the Death Eaters are involved in this. Finding and arresting the culprit might just be the first step to end all remaining Death Eater activity in Britain. Not to mention that it might also improve wizard-goblin relationships for a while..."

"Yes, sir. We won't disappoint." Maes assured him, trying his best to sound serious, and not like a slimy git.

"I wish to be informed of all major developments that this investigation brings forth, Hughes. Is that understood?"

"Yes, minister."

"Good. Now-"  
Before King Bradley could however even properly begin saying whatever he wanted to say, a loud voice echoed from the hallway into the office. "Minister, sir! Where have you gone? It is time for today's next date!"  
"Ah, damn! Seems like one of my secretaries has already tracked me down." He said in a unexpectedly casual tone. "I specifically snuck off, just so that I could squeeze this meeting here into my schedule... being minister of magic comes with a tight schedule!"

"Just so that we're clear, in case one of my secretaries asks, I was never here!" The minister then added, before he swiftly left the room, leaving Maes and his subordinates staring at the door in disbelief.

"Did... that just really happen?" Maes asked stupefied, pointing at the door.

The response that he got was seven simultaneous nods.

"Uh, alright then... where were we before-"

"Sir, look!" Havoc quickly interrupted Maes before he could remember the topic of his smoking.

Just as the minister had left the room, a memo, a letter enchanted to look like a paper aeroplane that independently travelled between the ministry's various departments had entered the office, and was now flying towards Maes. With a quick movement, he snatched the letter out of the air. The sender was Roy; without a doubt this was the results of his interrogation with Dumbledore.

"You're dismissed for now. We will continue this introduction later." Maes said, addressing his subordinates. He could still share the new information with them later.

Once all of his subordinates had gone back to work, Maes opened the letter with a sigh. Things could hardly get more complicated.

* * *

-7-

* * *

**One month later**  
September 1st, 2006, was a day like any other at King's Cross. Trains arrived and departed, people were running around, trying to catch their trains in time, and Harry Potter was more or less lost.

In retrospect, Harry was still a bit amazed at the fact that he managed to convince his uncle, Vernon Dursley, to drive him all the way to King's Cross in London. While he and his aunt Petunia taking their son Dudley to a hospital in London- to have the pig tail that their encounter with Hagrid resulted in removed- was a valid reason, Harry still couldn't help but to think that it was a bit convenient that they would do it on this exact day – but then again, they probably wanted all traces of magic in their lives to be gone together with Harry, so they could go on living their perfectly 'normal' lives.

For Harry himself, the past month had been a mixture of anticipation, impatience, and to an extent even fear. Everything that happened on his birthday still seemed too good to be true. As a matter of fact, if it weren't for the fact that he still had everything that he had purchased on that day, Harry would have considered it all a dream.

But it was real.  
Harry had met Hagrid.  
Harry had been in the Diagon Alley.  
Harry had made a friend in Edward.  
And Harry was a wizard.

Now that the day had come when he would be travelling to Hogwarts, his new school, only one emotion prevailed in Harry: Excitement. For the first time in his entire life, he would be away from the Dursleys for an extended period of time... though he still wasn't sure what exactly was ahead of him. Sure, Hagrid had told him a few things, and Edward had promised to help Harry get used to the wizarding world, but the fact remained absolutely everything ahead of him was new to him. As a matter of fact, he didn't even know how he should get to the platform from which the train to the school would depart: Platform... 9¾?

How was he supposed to find that?

Luckily enough, though, Edward and Harry had agreed to meet each other at King's Cross in the "normal" areas... which still did present the problem of having to find Edward and his family first. The only thing that Edward had said to Harry was that he should "Watch out for unusual things", without further specifying what these unusual things were.

Feeling very much lost, Harry looked around him, searching for anything "unusual". He saw a man running towards him as if he were in a great hurry, only to suddenly slow down once he ran past Harry. He saw a couple, consisting of an incredibly large and muscular man with black hair, a mustache and a beard, and a woman with black hair in dreadlocks, who was only about half as tall as her husband. He saw a large, gunmetal-colored suit of armor-

Oh. Maybe that was what Ed meant by 'unusual'?

With increasing nervousness, Harry made his way towards the suit of armor, doing his best to stay out of the way of other people passing by. As it was, the cage with his pet owl Hedwig, as well as his trunks, was already drawing enough attention to him as things were. Oddly enough, none of the people around him seemed to pay attention to the suit of armor standing around – it was just like with the Leaky Cauldron, which people either seemed to not notice, or just ignore. Perhaps this was because of some kind of spell?

As Harry got closer to the suit of armor, he could finally see the people standing around it: A very short, old woman who looked old enough to be somebody's grandmother, a blonde girl at around Harry's age – and Ed. Harry ran the last steps towards them, relieved that he wouldn't be alone, after all.

"Oh, hey Harry!" Ed said as he noticed Harry approaching him and the others. "We were just wondering when you'd show up."

"Finding you would have been easier if you hadn't just told me to look for something 'unusual', you know..." Harry retorted, still trying to catch his breath.

Edward scratched his head, laughing a bit nervously. "Weeell... you did find us, didn't you?"

Before Harry could even give an answer, the old woman nudged Edward. "Ed, don't you think it would be a bit more polite to introduce us?"

"Uhh, yeah, sorry." Edward apologized, though Harry could tell that he was doing his best not to roll his eyes. "Harry, this Pinako Rockbell, the grandmother of the friend that I'm living with." He pointed towards the old woman. "This is Winry Rockbell, my friend." He pointed towards the blonde girl. "And this is Alphonse, my younger brother." He pointed... towards the suit of armor?!

"Err... if he is your younger brother, how come-" Harry interrupted himself, having just remembered what Ed's reaction to being called 'short' by Hagrid had been "...he is so tall?"

Edward and the armor (which, as Harry just now noticed, had glowing, bright red dots in place of its eyes) – Alphonse – exchanged a quick glance with each other, before they both turned towards Harry. "T-That's because Alphonse has a rare magical sickness, which makes it so that he has to wear that armor as treatment!" Edward hastily explained, eagerly gesturing, trying to downplay the situation.

"Y-Yeah! We hope that by the time that I go to Hogwarts next year, we'll have a permanent cure for it!" Alphonse added to his brother's explanation. Hearing a high-pitched voice such as Alphonse's come out of a suit of armor as big as this one really was a weird experience... but just why did they explain this to Harry in such an-over-the-top way? They wouldn't be lying about this, would they?

"Oh, that, reminds me..." Edward said before Harry could further continue this train of thought. "Pay up, Alphonse. It really is him- just ask him if you don't believe me."

Harry blinked. "...What?"

"Uh, well, you see, when I got back home last month, no one actually believed that I really met you... so I made a bet with Alphonse. If today it would turn out that you're really... well, you, he'd have to pay me one Galleon. And if not, I'd have to pay him one." Edward explained awkwardly.

The armor leaned a bit closer towards Harry, inspecting him curiously. "You're really Harry Potter? The Harry Potter?"

"Err... yeah? I guess..." Harry confirmed, not quite sure what to think about Ed making a bet like that.

"Oh no... that means I'll barely have any pocket money left..." Alphonse lamented, somehow managing to make his suit of armor look depressed.

"Geez, Ed, if that is how you treat new friends, then it's honestly no surprise that you barely have any..." The blonde girl – Winry? – interjected, before Alphonse could even hand over the money. "Please don't mind Alphonse... he really is a good guy, he just gets roped into stupid things by his idiot brother very often."

Harry hesitated for a moment, staring at Edward and Alphonse, who were currently exchanging the money, while Ed gave Winry an angry glare. While Ed making a bet about him really was not exactly the kind of thing that he would expect a friend to do, he didn't particularly mind it, either; having somebody be glad to know him was a pleasant change. In a way.

"...It's alright, really." He then finally said. "Though, if you're already making money using my name, you could at least share with me, Ed, right?"

Edward gave him a look of disbelief, before bursting out in laughter. "Haha, I guess you're right! I'll give you your share once we're on the train, alright?"

"Now, as much as I enjoy watching you kids having fun..." The old woman, Pinako, interjected before Harry could reply "I think it is about time that we make our way to platform 9 ¾, or else you'll have trouble finding a compartment for yourselves."

They all looked at the nearest clock. It was already twenty to eleven; somehow, they had spent a good ten minutes just talking.

"C'mon you lot, let's get going." And with that, Pinako went ahead of them, leaving Harry, Edward, Alphonse and Winry to go after her.

As they followed her almost quietly (Harry himself being too excited to really say anything, and Ed and Winry talking about something concerning Edward's automail), Harry began to notice that just about none of the people passing them by seemed to notice Alphonse – as if an enormous suit of armor walking through King's Cross station was something absolutely normal. Unable to keep his puzzlement for himself, Harry walked up to him, and asked: "Say, how come nobody notices you? People usually pay more attention to suits of armor walking around..."

Alphonse chuckled. "That's because this armor is enchanted with a SEP-field – a Somebody Else's Problem field."

Harry blinked a few times in confusion. "...What?"

"It's quite simple, actually. Basically, every muggle that directly looks at me sees the armor, and just thinks that it's not their business... well, at least that's how I think it works. Granny Pinako did that for me, since Ed or me can't use magic yet, and that's how she explained it to me." Alphonse said, apparently not minding in the least that he had to explain things to Harry.

"Why do you call her 'Granny', when you aren't related to her? I mean, Ed told me that all of your relatives are, well..." Harry left the sentence purposefully unfinished. He himself didn't even remember his parents, and therefore didn't really mind if someone talked about them being dead, but he didn't know how Alphonse would react, since he probably did remember his own parents.

Luckily though, it seemed like Alphonse didn't really mind. "Since our mother died, Granny Pinako has been looking after us. Our father has been an old friend of hers, and she knew our mother quite well... she's just like a grandmother to us. That's why we call her that."

"Ah." Was all that Harry got out in response to that.

"And you have been living with muggles, I heard? What are they like?" Alphonse asked, after they had walked silently side by side for another moment.

"Terrible." Harry replied, without even the slightest bit of hesitation. "They-"

"Here we are, platform 9 ¾!" Pinako's voice interrupted him before he could even begin to elaborate on his dislike for the Dursleys.

Harry looked around. They were standing between the platforms nine and ten, specifically, in front of a divide between the two platforms. There was nothing that seemed to be particularly outstanding about this divide... but then again, from what magic Harry had seen so far, things rarely were what they seemed.

From the looks of it, however, Harry wasn't the only one who was confused. "Hey you old hag, are you sure that you aren't going senile? There's nothing here!" Ed loudly grumbled.

"Ed, don't talk to granny like that!" Winry quickly chided him. Pinako only laughed.

"You honestly ought to be less skeptical of magic, young man! Of course you cannot just see it – if you could, muggles would have absolutely no problems finding the platform."

Edward seemed to remain skeptical. "But how can you be so sure that this is the right place? And how do we get to the platform, anyway?"

"Through there." She pointed to the divide, which, as Harry could not help but to notice, gave off a distinct impression of being very much solid. Both Winry and Alphonse seemed, judging by their expressions (as far as that was possible in Alphonse's case, that is), seemed quite unconvinced, too.

"So you're basically telling us to run headfirst into a brick wall." Ed asked critically.

Pinako rolled her eyes. "If you want to put it that way."

"Which, if you just so happen to be wrong about this place could hurt. A lot."

"Well, anything is possible." Pinako admitted.

"And you can't be entirely sure that this is even the right place, right?!"

"Just trust me! I have already been to Hogwarts myself, and brought Winry's father to the platform, so I should know where it is by now, don't you think?"

"...I'll try it." The words had slipped out of Harry's mouth before he could even think about it. It probably had been his nervousness, as well as seeing Ed, Al and Winry skeptical like that had make him say it – Harry didn't know. Both Pinako and Ed turned towards him.

"Ah, see Ed? Harry believes me!" Pinako said.

"If we just stand here arguing, we'll never get to the platform..." Harry shrugged. "So, err, what do I do?"

"You simply walk through the divide. If you knew what you're doing, and were nervous, I'd suggest that you simply run through it, but since a certain somebody just won't believe a word I say," She gave Edward a glare, "I suppose that it is best if you just walk."

Harry looked at the divide. It still looked quite solid... but he didn't want to back out now. His heart beating faster, he started walking towards the barrier.

"Good luck, mate!" Edward shouted after him. Harry ignored it; the wall that he was currently approaching demanded too much of his attention. Against his better judgment, Harry began to run. The wall came closer and closer. When he was only about a meter away from it, he closed his eyes, bracing himself for the impact... but the impact never came. He just passed right through the divide... and once he was certain that he was through, Harry opened his eyes again.

He was standing on a platform looking a lot like the one that he had just left. It was packed with people, and a train was already waiting. The difference between the two platforms was distinct, though- the people on this platform were all wearing robes, hats, or suits, and the train was a scarlet steam engine. As Harry looked around with a big grin on his face, Winry, Alphonse, Pinako, and lastly, Edward, followed after him.

"Well you lot, welcome to platform 9¾! Who was right now, Edward?"

"Yes, yes, you were right, and I was wrong, granny, I'm sorry..." Edward grumbled, just barely loud enough for it to be heard.

"Well, that's good to hear." Pinako grinned. "Now come, let's find you three an empty compartment."

With Pinako going ahead once more, they slowly made their way through the crowd, giving Harry enough time to look at the people that they passed by. There were so many people on the platform that caught Harry's interest that he almost wished that they had at least another hour before the train departed.

They passed by a family that seemed to consist of at least six red-headed persons: A plump woman, a boy with a prideful expression who looked like he was already at Hogwarts for many years, a pair of grinning twins who looked a bit younger than the older boy, a boy at about Harry's age, and a young girl holding the woman's hand. As they passed them by, the family seemed to be talking about one of them having something on his nose, though they were already past them before Harry could even figure who supposedly had the dirt on his nose.

Shortly after that, they came across an old man, two kids; a boy and a girl, both Harry's age, who seemed to be talking a in a different, possibly eastern language. They seemed to be of Asian heritage, too- black hair, thin eyes... at least the two kids. The old man was completely white-haired, and had fairly wide eyes, and was talking to the girl in an instructive tone of sorts. But again, before Harry could figure anything out, they were already past them.

The third family that got Harry's attention by far beat the previous two in being... noteworthy. This family consisted of two men, one woman and a girl, who probably was the one going to Hogwarts (at least Harry hoped that it was only her). The two men were both very tall, though one of them still stood a good bit taller than the other. In fact, that man seemed almost as tall as Alphonse's armor, which was quite tall. The man had an enormous blonde mustache, equally enormous muscles, and was- except for the mustache and a single strand of hair on his forehead- entirely bald.

The other man had, as if to compensate for the lack of height in comparison to the taller man, an absolutely gargantuan mustache and beard, which even connected to the rest of his hair. Harry simply couldn't figure out which one of the two was the father, and which one the son – if they were even related to each other like that.

The woman, on the other hand, stood almost as tall as her... whatever her relation to the taller man was, and had a face that had an eerie similarity to that of Harry's aunt Petunia, which had the result of her giving off the impression of a horse that had somehow learned to stand upright. Just like the two men and the girl, she was blonde.

The girl, though... she actually looked fairly normal in comparison to the other three. She seemed to be several years older than Harry, and reminded him a bit of an older version of Winry, complete with blue eyes, and long blonde hair. As Harry and the others passed the family by, he could hear a snippet of the man with the gargantuan beard talking to the girl. "...now then, Catherine, I am absolutely certain that this year, you will once again provide the Armstrong family name with nothing but the greatest honors, just like Alex and..."

But once again, they were already past them before Harry could make any sense of it. Only a moment later, Pinako had finally lead them to a carriage that was still relatively empty. One after another, they lifted the luggage of Harry, Edward and Winry onto the train, until only they themselves had to board it.

"Well then..." Pinako said, smiling at Harry, Ed and Winry who were standing in front of the carriage. "Don't cause me any trouble, you two. Especially you, Ed. I doubt that if you break your automail at Hogwarts, they will be able to fix it there. Winry... I'm certain that you will be alright. I only wish that your father was still alive... he and your mother always wanted to see the day where you finally went to school. And Harry... I know I just met you, but I'm glad that you already get along so nicely with Ed and Winry. I wish you the best of luck."

"Th-thank you!" Harry stuttered, baffled that Pinako was talking to him like that.

"No need to thank me! Now, better get in there, you lot! The train is about to depart."

After looking at the nearest clock and seeing that it really already was 11 o'clock, Harry and Winry did as Pinako told them – Edward however still stayed behind for a moment, looking at his brother.

"Alphonse..." He said solemnly. "Don't you worry, I'll write you as often as I can. And I'll look into all the possibilities on how to... cure you that I can find. Just you wait... I'll find something!"

Alphonse nodded. "I know. And I'll use the time that you're away, too! There are several libraries in the Diagon Alley... I bet somewhere there, I'll be able to find something. So don't worry, brother... I'll manage on my own. Now get going!"

Edward pulled a weak smile. He then rammed his right fist into the chest of Alphonse's armor, and dashed into the carriage, where Harry and Winry were already waiting. And not a moment to soon: Only a few second after Ed was on the train, it started to move.

Together, Harry, Ed and Winry looked after Pinako and Alphonse, until they were out of their view.

"What did you mean with you looking into methods to cure Alphonse? Aren't there doctors looking into that?" Harry asked, as the three of them entered an empty compartment.

Edward blinked a few times, as if he were uncertain on what to say. Then- "Well, yeah, but, uh, you see, they say that it might take some time before they find something, so we're also trying to find something ourselves, so that, uh, we're getting this solved faster, you know?" The words flowed out of him in an incredible speed, making it a little difficult to figure out what he was actually saying.

"Err, okay." Harry said, deciding to not further question it.

"Don't mind him, he's just a bit touchy about that subject." Winry explained, sitting down.

Harry simply shrugged, and sat down, too, as the train brought them towards Hogwarts.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**  
Chapter 2, end. Now, I suppose there is a couple of things that I ought to adress. . .

Firstly: Yes, Roy was a Slytherin, and Hughes was a Gryffindor. Big shock. And no, I haven't settled on a house for Riza yet.

Secondly, the fact that Roy didn't fight in the war against Voldy, after all. You see, when I wrote the first chapter, I had done nowhere near as much planning as I have done by now, which includes "mashing up" the timelines of Harry Potter and Fullmetal Alchemist. The way I have aligned them, it turned out that Roy and Maes were still at school when Voldy was defeated, so since I didn't want to retcon the first chapter, I simply changed it to Death Eaters still bing active after their master's demise - hardly unrealistic, I'd say.

Thirdly, the incident in which Roy had to go the headmaster's office during his own time as student is actually not clearly defined. So, tell you what: I'll take the best suggestion for what that could've been.

Fourthly, as you might notice, I have moved the entire Harry Potter plot fifteen years ahead into the future, from 1991 to 2006. The reason for this is simple: I'm simply a lazy ass, and feel like I'm having an easier time writing something that's set after 2000, than something set during the nineties. Big deal.

Fifthly: There's plenty of cameos for characters that are going to actually debut later on in the last scene - name them all, and you get an imaginary cookie.

And lastly: Since a good portion of the seven reviews that I have at the point of this chapter's publication make note of it, let me elaborate a bit on my statement on the 2003 anime and Brotherhood. **I do not hate the 2003 anime.** For what it is - an anime adaptation that was created at a point when the manga had barely started - it is really quite good, and I can appreciate it. In comparison to both the manga and Brotherhood however, the 2003 anime is plain overshadowed, and kind of a letdown.  
That, and fantards that go out of their way to state that the 2003 anime is _better_ than the manga and Broterhood just plain piss me off.


End file.
